With the help of digital technology with very good image quality at high ISO allows me now to get back into shooting wild life again. I chanced upon this Nikkor 600mm f5.6 IF-ED AIS used with a good price and decided to give it a try. Anyway, this is the first lens that I use with no German origin.

This is a very old lens, the very early design of the 600mm series from Nikon. At f5.6 the weight is more manageable by me. There is already the used of special lens elements to reduce chromatic aberation. With internal focusing the length of the lens remains unchange thus very good for practical use, especially if both the lens and the camera body are mounted on tripods.

After bought the lens of course I went to try some easy subjects. Below is a black swan in Singapore Botanical Garden.

Actually come to bird photography, other than the skill of the photographer, the knowledge on the birds is also very important. For me I am not so deep into bird photography. But I am lucky enough to bump into bird experts when I bring my 600/5.6 around. Below is a shot of the Brown Hawk Owl at the Singapore Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. I happened to see two groups of photographers all shooting this pair of Brown Hawk Owls. I had to wait for the moment both of their eyes were facing the camera.

I used the lens with the Nikon TC14B 1.4x tele-convertor. The results are quite good like the shot below. Fringing is unavoidable for lens of this focal length and technology at that point of time. Stop down from maximum aperture of f5.6 to f8 will improve the fringing effect.